Publications

WHO has developed evidence-based maternal health recommendations for reducing maternal mortality and morbidity. This review compares national guidelines and protocols, implementation and health system standards to WHO recommendations for eight countries that account for 96% of maternal deaths in the Western Pacific Region.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will not be achieved without the active and meaningful involvement of the private sector. Can the private sector be held accountable for protecting women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health? And if so, who is responsible for holding them to account, and what are the mechanisms for doing so?

The 2018 monitoring report for the EWEC Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030) is based on data from 2017 and early 2018 for the 60 indicators in the EWEC Global Strategy monitoring framework. Dashboards in Annex 2 signal where progress is being made or lagging.  

As the violence directed at members of key populations most affected by HIV — gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men; people who inject drugs; sex workers; and transgender people — intensifies and becomes “acute” in many parts of the globe, this brief offers guidance to international and regional actors who wish to be part of an effective and coordinated response. International and regional actors who may benefit from this guidance include, but are not limited to, key population networks, governmental bodies, donors, embassies, security experts, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), media, research institutions, United Nations (UN) agencies or offices, and human rights organizations operating globally or regionally.

Deaths among children aged one month to 5 years old have fallen dramatically in recent decades. But progress in reducing the deaths of newborn babies – those aged less than one month – has been less impressive, with 7,000 newborns still dying every day. This is partly because newborn deaths are difficult to address with a single drug or intervention – they require a system-wide approach. It is also due to a lack of momentum and global commitment to newborn survival. We are failing the youngest, most vulnerable people on the planet – and with so many millions of lives at stake, time is of the essence.

The 2017 annual report of the flagship programme initiative, Making Every Woman and Girl Count (MEWGC), provides an overview of the key achievements during the reporting period, including a review of activities and progress in implementing the MEWGC programme at the global, regional, and national levels. It also contains an update on resource mobilization and advocacy, a review of challenges and lessons learned, and a brief overview of global-, regional-, and pathfinder country–level plans for the forthcoming year.

The fight against TB is integrally linked with the region's broader aspirations for health and development. TB sits at the intersection of health and development – the poor are exceptionally afflicted by TB, and up to four times more than those in the highest income bracket. TB perpetuates poverty by debilitating those with disease, often in the most productive years of age. It is estimated that TB patients in low and middle income countries face expenditures equivalent to more than 50% of their annual income in fighting this disease. With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, all countries are now committed to "end TB" which essentially means at least a 90% reduction in TB mortality and 80% reduction in TB incidence by 2030. This needs a paradigm shift in strategies that we use to address TB. While the global goal of Ending TB has received political support, the reality is that the current pace of progress in the Region is too slow – and by several orders of magnitude in most countries – to reach the End TB targets.

This reference document provides a detailed analysis of transactional sex and discusses policy options and principles of engagement around transactional sex in the context of HIV prevention. Although transactional sex is practiced by men and women in all regions of the world, this document focuses specifically on the determinants and consequences of adolescent girls’ and young women’s engagement in transactional sex in sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on this population because of the potential importance of transactional sex for young women’s HIV risk in this region. The document will not address men who have sex with men or gay men and transgender people and the engagement around transactional sex.

Year on year, millions of women and adolescents in 155 countries and territories have been progressively able to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights. This is in no small measure as a result of UNFPA programmes and activities. The UNFPA strategic plan for 2014-2017 set ambitious targets for increasing access to sexual and reproductive health services. These services have empowered millions of women to make their own decisions about whether, when or how often to become pregnant. They have enabled millions of teenagers to avoid unplanned pregnancy and to make safe and healthy transitions to adulthood. And they have slowed the unnecessary and cruel tide of maternal death.

Supported by infographics, the 2017 illustrated annual report sums up the evaluation function’s performance in the areas of corporate and decentralized evaluations and provides an overview of the measures undertaken to strengthen UN Women’s contribution to UN system-wide coordination and national capacity development for gender-responsive evaluation.